The Potter’s Field
Ellis Peters
The Seventeenth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael
Digital Edition v3 HTML – January 30, 2003
Copyright © 1990 by Ellis Peters
CONTENTS
^
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter One
^ »
Saint Peter’s Fair of that year, 1143, wasone week past, and they were settling down again into the ordinaryroutine of a dry and favorable August, with the corn harvestalready being carted into the barns, when Brother Matthew thecellarer first brought into chapter the matter of business he hadbeen discussing for some days during the Fair with the prior of theAugustinian priory of Saint John the Evangelist, at Haughmond,about four miles to the north-east of Shrewsbury. Haughmond was aFitzAlan foundation, and FitzAlan was out of favor and dispossessedsince he had held Shrewsbury castle against King Stephen, thoughrumor said he was back in England again from his refuge in France,and safe with the Empress’s forces in Bristol. But many ofhis tenants locally had continued loyal to the king, and retainedtheir lands, and Haughmond flourished in their patronage and gifts,a highly respectable neighbor with whom business could be done tomutual advantage at times. This, according to Brother Matthew, wasone of the times.